NEW DELHI OCT. 9. In a bid to make the procedure of selection of candidates more transparent,
People’s Action has urged all political parties to open up their screening process to public scrutiny so that the voters are aware of all the aspirants in advance. An effort to make people part of the selection process from the very beginning will, according to the non-government organisation, go a long way in weeding out the "criminal" elements at the start. "Everyone has a right to know who intends to represent them. After the nominations have been filed, it is doubtful that any of the political parties would withdraw their candidates. We are suggesting that political parties hand over the names of the people who are ticket-aspirants. It is important that people should have some say on the candidates the parties will finally select. This model will encourage good, clean candidates to file for candidature but also promote candidates among their constituency,” according to the president of People’s Action, Sanjay Kaul.
This model aims to share the details of a prospective candidate with public consultants such as NGOs or other civil society groups so that an independent assessment based on the facts is made and forwarded to political parties. It has also offered to put up all details for scrutiny by a committee of eminent jurists, civil servants and journalists under the banner of Delhi Election Watch. The president of People’s Action has also sought a meeting with BJP Delhi president, Madan Lal Khurana, as well as the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Choudhary Prem Singh, to discuss the same issue. "We have also offered to hold a joint conference for the benefit of the two chiefs so that they can address a representative group of NGOs and civil society organisations in the run up to the elections,” he stated. Besides, pressurising political parties to make their selection process more transparent, the NGO is also battling the apathy of affluent classes who refrain from voting. "We are planning to conduct a survey in one constituency to see what the polling patterns are. We want to find out who actually voted. Unfortunately, most people who can actually effect the quality of governance stay away from voting,” he lamented.
© Copyright 2000 – 2005 The Hindu